Thursday, July 2, 2015

Housing Market is Healthiest in Years!

According to Nationwide’s recently unveiled, Health
of Housing Market (HoHM) Report, the US housing market
is at it’s healthiest levels since the index’s creation in 2001.

The index analyzes the health of the housing market
across the country and in 373 metro areas every quarter. Using the data that
they have collected over the past 15 years, Nationwide will look to give a “data-driven
view of the near-term performance of housing markets based upon current health
indicators.”

The fourth quarter of 2014 ended with the highest
indicator score in over 15 years of data analyzed by the study at 109.8. The
report explains:

“An index
value over 100 suggests that the national housing market is healthy, with lower
chances of a housing downturn over the next year as the index moves
increasingly above the 100 breakeven value.”

Employment, demographics, the mortgage market, and
housing prices are all used to evaluate the health of each market. The top 10
healthiest housing markets according to the index are:

Pittsburgh, PA

Cleveland-Elyria, OH

Philadelphia, PA

Rockford, Ill.

Burlington, NC

Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA

Fayetteville-Springdale, AR

Idaho Falls, ID

Tulsa, OK

Kennewick-Richland, WA

The two ‘least healthy’ markets were Bismark, ND and
Atlantic City, NJ who received “just slightly negative performance
rankings”.

David Berson, Nationwide’s Chief Economist and
Senior Vice President, says “the quarterly report should serve as a
resource to gauge how healthy housing markets are today but, perhaps more
important, what to expect in the future and why.”

Bottom
Line

The housing market continues to recover and surpass
recent history. Meet with an agent in your local market to determine if you are
able to take advantage of the opportunities available in real estate today.